Printing: Duplex & Margins

If you are using KDE4, you may discover that a number of applications that use GTK/GNOME (e.g., Firefox and Thunderbird) to print, their Print…|Page Setup screens will not let you select any Two-Sided options. Since there is no nice global KDE4 printer configuration tool yet, the fix is to:

Access CUPS using a web browser via http://localhost:631/.

Click on the Printers tab.

For the desired printer, select Set Printer Options.

Change the Duplexer Installed setting from Not Installed to Installed.

Click Set Printer Options.

Also, if you are using HPLIP and are having issues with the print margins, then this may help:

Upgrade to the latest stable CUPS, if you haven't already done so.

Upgrade to the latest stable HPLIP, if you haven't already done so.

Run the hp-toolbox tool.

Delete all of the relevant HP printers.

This will delete all settings and PPD files for those printers.

Recreate all of your HP printers.

This will recreate all default printer settings, PPD files, etc.

I recently encountered this issue on a computer which was only resolved by (i) ensuring the latest stable releases of CUPS and HPLIP were installed and then (ii) deleting all HP printers and recreating them. With hp-toolbox, deleting and recreating all HP printers is quick and easy: simply use the round "-" (to delete) and "+" (to create) buttons.

NOTE: If you do this for an HP printer supporting duplex printing, remember to follow the directions given earlier to set the Duplexer Installed setting to Installed! 🙂

Finally, avoid using "testing" or "unstable" versions of CUPS or HPLIP unless you have a newly released printer that was unsupported, or, there is a critical bug fix for your printer that must be fixed.